James Hamblen, a professor in the computer engineering area, joined the Georgia Tech Faculty in 1984 after graduating with his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. His other degrees include an M.S.E.E. from Purdue University and a B.E.E. from Georgia Tech.

Prior to returning to Georgia Tech to work on his Ph.D., he worked several years in industry. While working on his M.S.E.E. degree he was employed by Wescom Inc. where he worked on the design of a fault-tolerant multiprocessor PBX system. Subsequently, he worked as a systems analyst for Texas Instruments in Austin, Texas, and as a senior engineer for Martin Marietta Corporation in Denver, Colorado.

At Texas Instruments, Dr. Hamblen was involved in the design of the TMS9900 microprocessor development system. At Martin Marietta, he was a senior engineer in the software research and development section where he worked on computer systems for satellites and spacecraft. He is the author of the popular textbook, Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems.